Aloha and Mahalo, Walt Disney

Here is an interesting piece by Jeff Kurtti about Walt Disney and Hawaii.

http://blogs.disney.com/insider/articles/2012/07/16/the-wonderful-world-of-walt-aloha-and-mahalo/

It talks about Disney's visits to Hawaii, the last of which was in connection with the filming of "Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN" which I remember reading about in a recent issue of Tiki Magazine's "Tiki in Films" column.

*** Corrections ***
The column is actually called, "Tiki on Screen" and it's written by Ron Ferrell. The installment that features Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN appears in the Spring 2013 Tiki Magazine.

[ Edited by: kenbo-jitsu 2013-08-29 09:55 ]

VERY interesting article, thanks for posting something "Disney" that relates to the Tiki context of this web site! Thortiki

Thanks for sharing K-J, great find. Always had a feeling Hawaii and other Pacific Islands were special to Walt. There were other Disney films and Cartoons set in Hawaii and the South Seas plus Walt was nominated for an Oscar in 1956 for producing a short called SAMOA.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-08-22 16:28 ]

Super interesting artical. Thanks for sharing!

It's prompted me to finally post a frame of this 'camera-ready' comic strip that I've been hanging on to for years now...

Goofy tries to woo Minnie away from a very well dressed Mickey by carving a tiki for her. Comedy ensues.

Knowing that I was big into collecting tiki, a former associate of mine gave me this original hand pen and inked comic strip from 1963. Hand 'signed' by Walt with blue penciled notes made in the margins. The 'dots' to create tonal shading are transparent overlay "Ben-Day" dots, cuts and glued to the paper.

The whole 4 frame strip measures about 7"x19". It was used inorder to be photographed and shrunk down for the newspapers' cartoon section. I doubt that the 'Walt' signature was actually him, though I do like to think so...
I'll post more of the frames eventually.

Spike
http://www.facebook.com/thehulagirls
http://www.thehulagirlsmusic.com

[ Edited by: Luckydesigns 2013-08-22 13:43 ]

On 2013-08-22 13:34, Luckydesigns wrote:
I'll post more of the frames eventually.

Really Spike, you're just going to leave us hanging? :lol:

Great first frame of a valued procession, teaser! How do you spell the words of drooling? If I knew I'd write it now.

Frames two and three of the 1963 Micky Mouse tiki comic strip that I acquired! We left off with Goofy trying to steal Minnie by carving a tiki for her... Sooo... Goofy wraps up the tiki and dramatically presents it to her!

Does she like it or hate it? Does she leave Micky for Goofy?? Stay tooned... Haha... Get it? Tooned?? Good stuff, right there...

Oh, also note the pencil comments made in the margins. The date and copyright info is a sperate piece of typed paper, glued on too.
Pretty interesting stuff to dissect (as least to me, as a professional graphic designer).

Great article. Enjoyed reading this :D. We can certainly thank men like Walt for bringing Tiki and Polypop culture to the masses. Thats a cool comic strip Spike. :D

Love this! Thanks so much for posting it! Interesting read! The Disney-Tiki crossover fan club is huge (as also evidenced in this month's Tiki Magazine containing TWO Disney-Tiki stories), so your timing is perfect.

When we left off with the comic, Goofy had just carved a tiki to try and impress Minnie with it...
He wrapped it up, brought it to her, and WAM-O! He scares the daylights out of her!
That's what you get for trying to move in on Micky's chick (er, mouse)!!

The Walt Disney signature on this frame is the one that I keep wondering if it was actually signed by Walt. Kinda doubt it.

Luckydesigns, I don't mind you sidetracking the thread, but this is too much!

On 2013-08-22 13:34, Luckydesigns wrote:
... Goofy tries to woo Minnie away from a very well dressed Mickey by carving a tiki for her.

I think you grossly misjudge the motivations of our dear friend, Mr. Goofy. Can he not simply do something nice for his friend Minnie without there being scandalous rumors?

Despite Minnie's reaction, I think the final product turned out quite well -- not the usual result of, well, pretty much anything Goofy undertakes. Note the old-school chisel work. But then Goofy with a chainsaw is a scary thought.

Goofy and Minnie...that seems wrong on so many levels.

I think this is what their children would look like:

Seems like another case of a "Divorce Tiki" to me:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=31098&forum=1&vpost=430426

Great little find, Spike, I think the Tiki is rendered really cool. I may have to borrow this strip from you for my next project, if you'd let me.

Sure, Sven. Just make sure you credit with 'From the collection of Spike Marble'. Hahaha...
Next time you're in the Costa Mesa area, you can come by and shoot it if you like. See the Breezeway too!

On 2013-08-26 13:24, Luckydesigns wrote:
The Walt Disney signature on this frame is the one that I keep wondering if it was actually signed by Walt. Kinda doubt it.

I visited Dave Smith in the Disney Archives back in the late 80's when he was the archivist for The Walt Disney Company. Dave handed me one of Walt Disney's personal sketch books where I saw this signature in pencil, and this led to a discussion. Dave told me the sketch I was looking at demonstrated that Walt Disney did, in fact, sign his name in that manner. But he also pointed out to me that the signature was actually designed by another Disney artist as a logo for Walt Disney and the company. So, once again, did Walt Disney personally sign using that design? Dave said that this sketch proved that he definitely did on at least one occasion. Did others also sign with, or otherwise use, that logo design to denote Disney-owned works? Definitely.

I apologize for the non-tiki contribution, but I felt that this was worth sharing.

Totally worth sharing. Thanks for the education!
BTW, you HELD one of his sketch books?? Crazy.

Yep, it was none other than Ub Iwerks who actually designed the iconic Walt Disney script signature. Walt gets the credit for Mickey Mouse which was really mostly Iwerk's design (as were Oswald, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar), so it only makes sense that Walt's autograph was designed by him too! :)

On 2013-10-23 13:21, Luckydesigns wrote:
BTW, you HELD one of his sketch books?? Crazy.

When you got invited into Dave's office, and you spent a couple hours with him telling stories and showing things, you quickly get to see how much he was into collecting and preserving this stuff for the company. He had all kinds of crazy things in his office which we got to look at and carefully handle. The first box-office ticket to Disneyland which was sold to Roy Disney ironically held in a simple tiny plastic name-badge sleeve. The company's copies of several of Walt's Academy Awards. Other movie memorabilia and history. It was breathtaking. But I was on the lot for something much more exciting that day - all the living cast and crew came for the 27th anniversary private screening of Mary Poppins. The main actors weren't there, but the choreographers, songwriters, etc. were present. I have a lot of interesting stories from my days with Disney.

Ok, really off-topic. But just like with tiki, when you get an opportunity, jump in with both feet immediately or you may regret not doing so in the future.

On 2013-10-23 13:23, Sunny&Rummy wrote:
Yep, it was none other than Ub Iwerks who actually designed the iconic Walt Disney script signature.

Ub was brilliant. Guys like him, working together, made the company.

We need some Ub Iwerks and Walt Disneys in the tiki world. I wonder what the next tiki breakthrough will be?